BLOG: California Is Running Out of Time to Save the Salton Sea

Located in Riverside and Imperial counties, about 150 miles (240km) southeast of Los Angeles in the desert, the Salton Sea is a 360-square-mile (930-square-km) lake, the largest by area in California. But that status is under threat, as the lake has been shrinking for years, exposing the dry lakebed and creating dust that has hurt the air quality for local residents, while taking away critical wetland habitat for thousands of birds. Now conditions are expected to deteriorate at a rapid clip when it stops receiving Colorado River water as part of an earlier agreement.